Nolgroth

I hear it just extends the CGI boss fight by 19 minutes. 
 
 
 Just kidding. I really have no idea. 

I hear it just extends the CGI boss fight by 19 minutes. 
 
 
 Just kidding. I really have no idea. 

You've been busy this week. Take a few minutes to grieve my friend.

I believe that the move to deconstruct comic books, beginning in the 1990s, was a necessary and ultimately beneficial trend for the genre. (Once you strip away most of the supers from that era with "death," "dark," or "blood" in their names.)   Examining who those characters are as people, why the storytelling conventions exist, and what the genre really says about society, led thoughtful writers like Peter David and Kurt Busiek to craft fresh stories which added depth to iconic superheroes without trashing everything that made them appealing in the first place.
 
But too many writers never moved past the instinct to tear the heroes down.

I'm good with collateral damage.

Bring a flamethrower.

Trump's remarks show how little he cares for the 2nd Amendment. I suspect that lack of consideration pretty much covers the span of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and subsequent amendments. 

Today would have been Mom's 76th birthday. I celebrated by eating a rare steak and a rich dessert (that I shouldn't have), and tipping the server $20 on a $25 order.
 
The day's actually been pretty good. I'm almost done with sorting through Mom's stuff, I dropped off her cable box to the company, and called up her telephone company to cancel service. The cable box owes the estate $11, which they'll send as a check, and the phone company will send a final bill to me (which will be probably 10x that, knowing the phone company). I haven't had to deal with any relatives today, so that's a bonus.
 
I've mentioned before that Mom used to feed the animals around her house, including a family of crows. I hadn't seen any of them for the last couple of days, until today. One of the crows was keeping a lookout in a tree across the street, and as I went out to check her mailbox, I heard a call from it that I always associated with when I'd feed them, or when I'd put the trash out during previous visits. On the way back from the mailbox, two other crows arrived, and all were visible on the lawn watching me, and keeping an eye on her house. we looked at each other (at a distance), and then they all quietly took flight. I have no doubt that they know she isn't there, and I almost took it to be paying respects.

I don't know why everybody is complaining about Eisenberg...I thought he was an awesome Joker.

Living with dread is horrible no matter what the cause. It saps you of a lot of joy that you might otherwise get to experience. You have my sympathies for that. Three of the worst things that ever happened to me happened when I was asleep. I dreaded sleeping for so many years that, to this day, my sleep schedule is completely borked. When I get refreshing sleep, it is a treasured occurrence.

Why do you think that I cannot vote for Trump? Even as a white guy, I can't stand the vitriol that he spouts. He seems less like a candidate for the United States President and more like some sort of mob underboss gunning for the Teamsters union top seat. His racist rhetoric has turned me away from somebody that I wanted in the White House. Not Trump specifically but somebody who is not a career politician. If I were able to stomach (or worse endorse) his racism, then Trump would be my clear candidate. As I said before, I have a conscience. 

It's a good point, but I'm having a hard time deciding which is the lesser of evils here. I know which way your preference swings and I applaud you that clarity. To me there is no such clarity. The good news is that I still have a little while to consider it. If the vote were held today, I'd be sitting at home.

Great things are done by a series of small things - Vincent Van Gogh

"Which of these candidates has a realistic chance to win, and of them, which is the least objectionable and will do the least harm to the most vulnerable?" is also a valid moral choice. If one candidate's election will put the lives and rights of some of the most vulnerable citizens at risk, then the maximum moral priority is not to vote for the candidate who most closely aligns with one's personal political preferences, it's to vote for the candidate who is most capable of defeating the candidate who will bring about that adverse outcome. YMMV but I think it's something to think carefully about.

Apparently Angry Joe loved it.
 
 

Went to a 7:30 show..well, I was, but it sold out.
Fortunately, they opened up another theatre for a 7:35
 
On another thread I made this post
  Mission accomplished....
 
No I'm not kidding. I gave Batman V Superman a 7/10. This is an 8 out of 10. I enjoyed it quite a great deal more than I thought I would after all those bad reviews.  Things that surprised me... 
1) More than once, Will Smith actually made me forget it was Will Smith I was watching, and made me feel sympathy for Deadshot
2) The guy playing Diablo , Jay Hernandez, has one of the best acting moments in the movie.  Seriously, the actor is now on my radar
3) Didn't expect the guest appearance from a certain hero, but I should have
4) Two people get a happy ending
 
Now I did call who would live and who would die, but the hows and whys varied enough that I didn't feel cheated 
 
I know I'm a soft touch, but I'm thinking of going again while it's in theaters if that tells you anything.

I am completely shocked at this news. Who would have thought something like this could happen in our culture of entitlement?

Well, Goldwater did say he was not averse to dropping a few nukes on North Vietnam. That one statement was probably why he was defeated so soundly.
 
LBJ was the ultimate pragmatist, and in the end it cost him dearly. He apparently didn't see the disconnect between his foreign and domestic agendas, neither of which he was particularly enthusiastic about. Kennedy had already set the course for the American intervention of Vietnam, and Johnson felt he had to go along with it or he would lose ground in the Cold War. He didn't so much direct policy as go along with what he thought was the best plan under the circumstances. And that lack of leadership translated into the debacle to come.
 
Actually, Trump and Clinton bear strong resemblances to Goldwater and LBJ. Trump is a demagogue, pure and simple, and his primary attribute remains sheer megalomania -- the belief that America needs a savior and it's him. Clinton also has as her underlying ideology a strong, enduring faith in Hillary Clinton, but she is also a pragmatist who thinks in terms of what she can accomplish realistically (and also what she can get away with). Fanaticism almost always leads to disaster, but pragmatism without a clear moral foundation can also lead to disaster. That is, in fact, why LBJ failed. He had no moral compass. I don't know that Clinton does either.

The thing is, Trump is not Conservative. He's the founder of the Reformed Nutjob Party.
 
There was a Republican from California (Doug Elmets) that spoke on behalf of Clinton during the DNC. He feels that the party should have repudiated Trump and had nothing to do with him. He was interviewed this morning on the local news radio station. His overall view is better the enemy you know (Clinton) that the whack job you don't (Trump). That is my interpretation of his statements, for the record. He did mention that the Republican party should have just cut their losses, let Trump split the vote, and went with a real candidate. 
 
I agree that Trump is dangerous but I also have no love, whatsoever, for the Clintons. I've also looked at the 3rd party candidates and am not impressed there either. Looks like I'll be sitting out the Presidential vote this year. Should be plenty of local issues and positions to keep me busy.

Spoilered for long-winded political rant.
 
 
 

May God have mercy on your soul.

Almost done. In watching this, I realize that I miss this genre of film. Man the 80s were a great time for low budget weird horror films with a lot of heart and imagination. Stuff like Scanners and Firestarter. I want more stuff like this.

You know how Dexter always tells Dee Dee not to push the button?
 
I wonder how many voters will be afflicted by Dee Dee's impulses come election day, when they're staring at that big, shiny Trump button. Will they be tempted by whispers of madness that only they can hear to push it, to see what chaos lies beyond?
 
 
 
 
*Ok, so I mixed up Lovecraftian Mythos with Dexter's Lab, but it seemed appropriate.